iPhone 18 Pro Max not syncing playlist play dates and photos

I just updated to iPhone 18 pro max. In the past I have synched my phone to my PC using iTunes and it has worked fine, actually better than fine, excellently, however, that is not the case with the 18. The backup works fine but the play dates and play counts on the iTunes my top-rated play list do not get updated, nor is it easy to update my photos. I have seen instructions for both issues, but they are not up to date.

The old suggestion is to connect to iTunes, go to the photo page and synch from there, but that doesn't work. The message I get refers to iCloud. I did a lot of maintenance on the photos, removing ones that are stored elsewhere and created a new basis group that stay on the iPhone. I moved that basis group to the iCloud photo folder (and the shared folder as there is no clear indication which is the right folder to use) but there's no obvious way to get them onto the phone. Currently I am waiting to see if the photos will synch up overnight but I'm not holding my breath. And even if they do synch, I won't know which folder they came from. Honestly, I would prefer not to use iCloud but that doesn't seem to be an option.

Getting a new phone is great except for when it isn't. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.